Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardRoselyn Hector fills out her ballot in this file photo from Election Day on Nov. 2, 2010 at a polling site in Syracuse. On Sept. 13, voters will return to the polls for primary elections in New York.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Two Republican Onondaga County legislators will take on their party’s endorsed candidates in primary elections Sept. 13 after failing to win the designation.

Warner, who retired as a state police investigator in 1991, initially sought the designation but withdrew his name from the committee’s consideration after it became apparent he would not get it. Then he filed petitions to challenge Shepard in a primary.

Attorney Robert Cox, of Pompey, who was appointed by County Executive Joanie Mahoney in March to fill the 12th District seat vacated by Robert DeMore, is challenging David Knapp for the Republican nomination. Knapp, a member of the LaFayette Town Council since 1999, received the Republican Committee’s endorsement in May.

The winners will get the Republic Party line on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. The job pays $25,591 a year.

Property taxes have been the main issue in the contest between Warner and Shepard, a Syracuse University Law School student and former senior housing manager.

Warner said Republican Committee members unfairly blamed him for the tax increases. He said the Van Buren Town Council made the county property tax increase worse when it decided to take all of the town’s $800,000 share of sales tax revenues this year in cash rather than as a credit against the town’s portion of county taxes.

He said he tried to lessen the tax increases by voting with a majority of the Legislature for changes to Mahoney’s 2011 budget plan that would have lowered the county’s tax levy. Mahoney vetoed most of those changes.

Shepard said he had planned to run for re-election to the Van Buren Town Council, but decided to run for the county Legislature after county property taxes in Van Buren rose 101 percent.

Cox, who has Mahoney’s backing, said he expects some lawmakers to again propose the park’s closing during this year’s budget debate.

“It’s a big issue here,” he said.

Much of Cox’s campaign literature contains the statement “Save Pratt’s Falls.” Cox even formed an independent party called Save Pratt’s Falls and filed a petition to be on the general election ballot on the party’s line even if he loses the Republican primary.

Two members of the county Republican Committee have challenged the petition, saying it contains the signatures of unregistered voters and people who signed multiple candidate petitions. Helen Kiggins, the county’s Republican elections commissioner, said her staff will review the petition this week.

Knapp, a sales representative for a medical supply company, said high property taxes are the biggest issue for voters in the district, which spans Pompey, LaFayette, Tully and Fabius, and parts of DeWitt and Manlius.

He said the county needs to consolidate government services to bring tax rates down or at least slow their increase. He said he also would oppose closing Pratt’s Falls if the issue comes up again.

County Republican Party Chairman Tom Dadey has made no secret of his displeasure over the primary challenges by Warner and Cox.

“The party is going to do what it needs to do to help our designated candidates,” he said. “I’m disappointed Mr. Warner and Mr. Cox chose not to respect the party’s designation.”